1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field about exchangeable lenses and imaging devices. Specifically, the present invention relates to a technical field for allowing autofocus operation and manual focus operation without operating the switch operation unit to thereby enhance the usability without causing a large rise in the cost.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among various kinds of imaging devices such as video camcorders and still cameras are ones that are so configured as to be capable of both of autofocus operation and manual focus operation in focusing and zooming.
For example, they are so configured as to be capable of selectively carrying out, in focusing, autofocus operation by driving of a drive motor and manual focus operation in which the operation unit is manually operated.
At the time of photography by use of such an imaging device, in some cases, the autofocus operation is automatically carried out in the autofocus mode, and thereafter the photographer operates the switch operation unit to set the manual focus mode and carry out focusing based on fine adjustment by the manual focus operation. Also when failure in the autofocus operation occurs, the photographer operates the switch operation unit and carries out focusing by the manual focus operation in some cases.
However, if the photographer operates the switch operation unit to attempt to carry out the manual focus operation after the autofocus operation, the fast shooting performance is lowered because of the operation of the switch operation unit, and thus possibly the photographer misses a photographic opportunity.
To address this problem, as one of the related-art imaging devices, there has been proposed an imaging device that employs an ultrasonic motor as the drive source of the autofocus operation to allow the autofocus operation and the manual focus operation without demanding the operation of the switch operation unit (refer to e.g. Japanese Patent No. 3205031 (hereinafter, Patent Document 1)).